Noncorrelating word order characteristics

As discussed in detail in Dryer (1992), there are a number of word order characteristics which, contrary to widespread belief, do not correlate with the order of object and verb. These include the order of adjective, numeral, and demonstrative with respect to a modified noun and the order of degree words with respect to a modified adjective. Among the vast majority of OV languages in Asia that are not TB, these pairs of elements occur in the order modifier-modified, and this has led some linguists to the mistaken belief that these features are to be expected of OV languages. However, as shown in Dryer (1992), it is not the case that these features are typical of OV languages. For example, with respect to the order of adjective and noun, it is actually somewhat more common for these to follow the noun in OV languages outside of Asia. The OV TB languages are in many respects atypical among OV languages in Asia, but normal for OV languages in the world as a whole, in that in most OV TB languages, some of these modifiers normally follow the modified word. The distribution of these word order characteristics among TB languages is also interesting in that there is considerable variation in their distribution and it is often the case that even within a given subgroup of TB, some languages will employ one order while others employ the opposite order. It is possible to describe this variation only very briefly here; I discuss it in much greater detail in Dryer (forthcoming).

2.2.1 Order of adjective and noun

Both orders of adjective and noun are well-attested as preferred orders among TB languages.

Among the eighty-five TB languages for which I was able to obtain information on this, the preferred order is AdjN in twenty-eight languages and NAdj in forty languages, and in seven-teen languages, both orders occur without any indication in my source that one order is preferred. Furthermore, assuming for the purposes of discussion the classification of TB languages proposed by Bradley (1997), in three of Bradley’s six highest-level subgroups of TB (Bodic, North-Eastern India, and Central), there are some languages in which AdjN is the preferred order and other languages in which NAdj is the preferred order. In the other three subgroups, all of the languages are either NAdj or allow both orders, with neither order dominant. Even within a number of groups at the next level down in Bradley’s classification, there are four groups containing languages of each of the two types (Bodish, Bodo-Garo, Tani, and Digarish ‘Mishmi’). For example, within Bodo-Garo, Deuri (Brown 1895) is AdjN, while Kokborok (Karapurkar 1976) and a few others are NAdj.

The geographical distribution of the two orders of adjective and noun is shown in Map 3.1.

This map makes clear the extent to which AdjN order is found in the western part of the area in which TB languages are spoken while NAdj order is found more to the east.

This distribution can be understood in terms of the distribution of the two orders in non-TB languages in the surrounding area. The languages to the west and southwest of TB, especially the Indic languages within Indo-European, are consistently AdjN, while the languages to the east of TB other than Chinese, namely, Tai-Kadai and Mon-Khmer languages, are

(6) &a⁵⁵ si³¹ n&⁵⁵ no³³ pe²¹xo⁵⁵ ku⁵⁵ 1PL give 2SG OBJ flower CLSFR

‘We gave you a flower.’ (Xu and Zhao 1984: 51)

consistently NAdj. Map 3.2 shows the distribution of the two orders of adjective and noun in a larger area of Asia that surrounds TB languages. The overall impression given by Map 3.2 is two clear areas in South and Southeast Asia, one to the west which is AdjN and one to the east which is NAdj. But these two areas split TB down the middle.

Note that the clearest exceptions to the tendency for AdjN order in the west are a number of

NAdj TB languages in the extreme western side of TB. These languages are all languages that are closely related to Tibetan, however, and they thus represent either languages which have

– djA N –NAdj India

China

Burma Nepal

MAP 3.1 ORDER OF ADJECTIVE AND NOUN

–NAdj – djA N

MAP 3.2 ORDER OF ADJECTIVE AND NOUN IN ASIA

moved into that area relatively recently, and thus have been less subject to influence from Indic languages, or languages whose less accessible location in the Himalayas has also meant that they have been less subject to influence from Indic languages.

2.2.2 Order of demonstrative and noun

The overall pattern of the distribution of the two orders of demonstrative and noun among TB languages is somewhat similar to the distribution of the two orders of adjective and noun:

DemN order is more common to the west, while NDem order is more common to the east.

However, DemN order is more common than AdjN order and there are a number of languages which are DemN but NAdj. Among the seventy-nine TB languages for which I was able to obtain information on the order of demonstrative and noun, fifty-one are DemN, twenty are

NDem, three allow both orders without there being evidence for one order being dominant, and five normally have demonstrative words simultaneously preceding and following noun, as in the example in (7) from Nishi.

As with the order of adjective and noun, we find both orders represented within the same subgroup. In four of Bradley’s highest-level subgroups there are some languages which are

DemN and others which are NDem (Bodic, Kuki-Chin, North-Eastern, and South-Eastern).

Note that this set of subgroups is very different from the analogous set with the order of adjective and noun: Bodic is the only subgroup in both sets. In other words all six subgroups are inconsistent, either in the order of adjective and noun or in the order of demonstrative and noun. Again we find languages of each type even within lower-level subgroups. For example, among the Burmish languages, Maru (Clerk 1911) is DemN while Achang (Dai 1985) is

NDem.

2.2.3 Order of numeral and noun

There is less variability in the order of numeral and noun among TB languages. The only lan-guages in which NumN is dominant are Bodic, although both types are about equally common in Bodic. Within Bodic, the distribution is largely predictable from lower level subgroups in Bradley’s classification: West Himalayish and Kiranti are NumN while Central Bodish (Tibetan), Western Bodish (Tamangic), and Eastern Bodish (e.g. Monpa) are NNum. Within what Bradley classifies as Central Himalayan, all are NumN except for Newari; however, the classification of Newari is notoriously problematic.

2.2.4 Order of degree word and adjective

I was able to obtain data on this characteristic for fewer languages, and I did not include affixes expressing degree. Again, there is a split, with twenty-five languages in which DegAdj is preferred, eleven languages in which AdjDeg is preferred, and four in which both orders occur with no evidence that one is preferred. The subgroup with the most AdjDeg languages is actually geographically central, namely, Kuki-Chin. And again, we find inconsistencies within lower level groups. Among the western languages of Central Bodish, Jad (Sharma 1989) is AdjDeg while Nyamkad (Sharma 1992) is DegAdj.

(7) sɑ ^{nyem sî} here woman this

‘this woman’ (Hamilton 1900: 20)

3 CHINESE

I use the expression ‘Chinese languages’ to apply to what are traditionally called ‘dialects’ of Chinese, following the use of these terms within linguistics. I will, however, largely restrict discussion to Mandarin. There are some differences in word order among the different Chinese languages, but I will generally ignore these here.

This section has two primary purposes. The first is to document the extent to which Mandarin is unusual in its word order in a number of ways. The second is to argue that these unusual characteristics are best understood areally and reflect the geographically intermediate position of Mandarin between the languages of Southeast Asia and the languages of Northeast Asia. In Section 3.1, I describe the word order characteristics of Mandarin, discussing ways in which it is unusual, and in Section 3.2, I discuss possible areal accounts of these unusual characteristics.